Sunday, 25 December 2011

Hainanese Chicken Chop @ IT Roo Café in Johor Bahru Old Town (near City Square), Malaysia

IT Roo Café is one of the oldest established Hainanese restaurants in Johor Bahru and proudly touts itself as serving the best chicken chop in JB. IT Roo was awarded the "Best Chicken Chop in Malaysia" title by The Star newspaper in 2003.

With such a reputation, we had no choice but to check it out :)

Some people said 2003 is a very long time ago and that the standard has dropped, so we went there with a little bit of scepticism.

IT Roo Café is the corner coffee shop at the junction of Jalan Dhoby and Jalan Pahang in old downtown JB.

We were at the famous café at lunch time on Christmas Eve (2011). The tiny air conditioned 1,000 square feet dining area was about two thirds full. The clientele was mainly the younger set - couples, family with children, and groups of friends.

I ordered their signature dish - fried chicken chop with mushroom gravy, of course. It was served on a plate with quaint looking pink chicken motifs J

The chicken chop was made from a thick piece of flattened thigh meat. The batter was just the right thickness – thick but not too heavy. The batter and skin were cooked to golden brown and that batter-skin combination was crunchy to the bite. It was dangerously delicious! because we couldn't resist gobbling down the cholesterol laden chicken skin as well!

The meat was thick, juicy and tenderly moist without any hint of dryness at all.

The mushroom sauce was creamy and had a nice delicate mushroomy flavour. Nice!

It was a busy day and there were many orders of chicken chop which is their signature dish. I was a little concerned that standards may be affected by the pressure to mass produce the popular chops to meet the orders. My worries turned out to be unfounded. The chicken chop was done perfectly though we had to wait about 30 minutes for our treat.

The chicken chop costs RM13 (2011).

I can already think of those friends whom I will bring to IT Roo to enjoy this delicious meal.

I heard that they make an evil fried rice too - shall make sure to try that during my next visit.

I have a place which I would like you to try out is called Hutan Bandar Chicken Chop. It is popular among the locals for its cheap price and usually there is a long que. 1 portion of fried chicken chop or fish and chips cost rm 5.30 and they are very generous in their portion. They also have other dishes such lamb chop. Taste wise its ok, I usually ask them to separate the sauce into a smaller bowl cause they tend to drench the food in their black pepper sauce. The place is only open at night and is closed on Sunday. The atmosphere of the place is not that great but the food portion size makes up for it. I insert a link about the place: https://foursquare.com/v/hutan-bandar-bistro/4e26dd59e4cd60a2c6295e71

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